Wild Horse Roping and Racing at Wild West Days?

A dedicated supporter of HfH, Robynne Catheron, is asking for your help in protesting an outdated “bronco busting” event from being held at the Wild West Days in Cave Creek, AZ. This will be the first year in which the organizers are holding a “wild horse taming” event.

An article in the The Sonoran News details the event. Here is an excerpt:

Also a first for Wild West Days is wild horse taming, where three cowboys will show the crowds how a bronc is tamed. First, a horse is loaded into a bucking chute where it is haltered. Next, a team of three cowboys ready themselves for the release of the horse into the arena. These cowboys are known as the shankman, the mugger and the rider. The shankman’s responsibility is to tightly hold to the lead rope and apply leverage to allow the mugger safe access to the withers, which are the horse’s shoulders. The mugger, once safely to the withers, attempts to hold the halter and prevent or slow down all forward motion of the horse. The rider’s goal is to effectively secure the saddle to mount and ride the horse with the ultimate goal of crossing a designated finish line. All of this happens within two exciting minutes.

Robynne has sent an email to the event organizers, newspaper editor and reporter, and copied the email to the mayor of Cave Creek and Arizona governor. To excerpt from Robynne’s excellent email:

The article about your event in the Sonorran newspaper is quickly making its way around Facebook, especially on wild horse advocates’ pages, touting your Wild West Days as the cruelest, most heartless, and most barbaric public spectacle of the year. An annual donkey-roping event was permanently shut down earlier this year by a state governor because of the vast amounts of negative correspondence he received regarding the inhumane treatment of these animals. Do you really want your event spotlighted as cruel and barbaric by the rest of the country? Further, is this how you want your town to be known?

The west is no longer wild, and our wild horses have enough stress in their lives with helicopter roundups, herd and family band decimation, and lifetime government warehousing to be subjected to further torture at a “bronc breaking” contest for sheer entertainment. Hundreds of thousands of equine advocates have worked too hard and for too long to sit back and ignore this horrific treatment of America’s beloved wild horses, or any other horse or animal. America has come too far in its quest for humane treatment of animals to step backward two hundred years into the past. I’m sure there are many other ways to celebrate the old west, and I implore you to replace the wild horse roping and racing with a something less abusive to animals.

You can help by emailing your reasons why this event should not be held to:

Have fun while helping the spread the news about Habitat for Horses with our Facebook St Patrick’s Day Horse Photo Contest. Go to https://www.facebook.com/Habitat.for.Horses.organd click on the St Patty’s Day Photo Contest Link to find out more.